There Comes A Time
by Starr123
Summary: <html><head></head>When Nikki becomes wrapped up in a difficult case, it's up to Harry and Leo to save her.</html>
1. Chapter 1

There comes a time

1.

They were in the cutting room when the call came. Leo appeared at the window, "They've found another body."

Harry let out a breath and glanced over to Nikki and saw the colour draining from her face.

"Where?" she asked shakily

"About 100m from where the first one was found," Leo replied, "I'm going over there to find out the details – call me if you find anything new."

Harry watched as he walked out of the viewing room then turned to Nikki who had not moved since hearing the news. "You alright?" he said gently moving around the table to stand next to her.

"How many more Harry?" she said, looking into his eyes. It frightened him to see them so lifeless. He knew that the case was getting to her – it was getting to all of them. How could six – now seven – identically murdered girls NOT get to them? He pulled her into a hug and let her head rest under his chin, where it fitted perfectly. "I don't know," he murmured.

Nikki could feel the tears welling in her eyes and she pushed Harry away. She didn't want him to see her cry again, to see the pain yet another case was causing her. "Can you finish up here?" she said roughly, turning away from him.

"Nikki –" began Harry, grabbing her shoulder and turning her body to face him. He looked down at her but she did not meet his gaze. He felt her pulled out of his grasp and watched as she walked out of the cutting room.

Harry sighed. This case was getting ridiculous. They had to find the killer now. Seven girls were now dead, each raped and strangled but with not enough DNA evidence to suggest who did it to them.

As Harry looked at the body in front of him, he thought of the murderer who was affecting so many lives. And now it seemed that they were affecting Nikki, more than he and Leo had first thought. They knew that she got caught up in whatever case she was doing but this was more than that. Even before they found the second body Leo had expressed concerns to Harry about Nikki and how she was handling the case. Since then, he had been watching her closely – watching her slowly become so involved in this case that it scared Harry.

He remembered the look on Nikki's face when she'd heard about girl number 7. He could not bear to see her in pain or upset and this was what the case was making her. As he stood there, Harry vowed to himself that he would do whatever it took to solve the case and make Nikki happy once more.

As he was driving to the crime scene all Leo could think about was his colleague's faces as he told them the news. It was Nikki's in particular that stuck in the front of his mind. It concerned him that she got so wrapped up in the death of someone's life that she forgot to live her own. He thought of Harry and the way he saw him look at her. He could see, even if they couldn't, what feelings they had for each other deep down and it gave him comfort to know that Nikki had Harry to protect her.

He soon pulled up at the scene where about half a dozen police officers where milling around waiting for him to get there. A man with a stern look on his face approached his car, "Professor Dalton?" he asked in a deep, husky voice.

"That's me."

"Good. I'm DC Gunn. We've been waiting for you. Shall we get started?"

Leo sighed inwardly. Here was yet another police detective who had the emotional range of a needle and thought he knew it all. It was going to be a long day.

"So here we have the body. Female, roughly aged nineteen, found just behind that clump of bushes over there," DC Gunn pointed to the small patch of bushes to their right, "The park gardener found her when he was tidying the flowers."

Leo bent over the girl's body and turned her over. Her face seemed so young and pale and the large, violent bruises around her neck contrasted her innocence completely.

After finishing his inspection of her he turned to DC Gunn, "Well, it certainly seems related. I'll have to take the body back to the lab and do a PM and some tests to be exactly sure but from first glance it seems that the killer has struck again."

He snapped off his gloves and stepped out of his overalls before getting into his car. Inside, he took a deep breath and pulled out his phone. Leo selected the number to whom it would be easier to confirm the news to.

"Dr. Cunningham," came the voice from the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, Harry – it's me. I've just seen the body and it appears to be another one of the girls," Leo said watching the police wrap up the body of the girl.

"Oh God, I'd hoped they'd been mistaken. Are they bringing the body to the lab now?"

"Yes and I'm about to leave too."

"Ok, I'll speak to you when you get back – do you want me to tell Nikki or will you when you get here?"

"Oh," Leo paused for a moment, "Could you Harry? She might take it better if it came from you."

Harry laughed but it was strained, "I don't think that she'll take it any better if it came from me or you Leo. But yes, I'll tell her. See you in a bit."

Harry hung up and noticed a figure behind him. He turned and saw Nikki leaning against the door to Leo's office, with her head down.

"Jeez Nikki, you trying to give me a heart attack?" he joked, trying to get her to smile. She didn't reply but continued to stare at the floor. "Hey?" he asked, more gently this time. He got up and went over to where she was standing. She moved her head up and met his gaze.

"Was that Leo?" she asked.

"Yes," Harry could see no point in lying to her, she could always tell anyway. He watched as she nodded as if already knowing the answer.

"And the body they found – it was another one of the girls?"

"Yes," he replied again, even quieter still.

"Right," She forced a smile at Harry, "Guess you have even more work to fall behind on then."

"Oi, I'll have you know that my work is always up to date thank you very much," he teased. "You are ok though?" he asked, serious now.

"Yes Harry – stop fussing please!" she said, the ghost of laugh playing on her lips.

As Harry watched her go and sit at his desk, he knew that no matter how many times she told him she was fine, she wasn't – and neither of them could pretend otherwise.


	2. Chapter 2

The morning dragged slowly on and Leo still hadn't returned with the body. Nikki could feel Harry's eyes on her yet she refused to meet them. She knew that he was only looking out for her; concerned for her - as a friend should be, but at the moment she just wanted to be left on her own.

When she could no longer pretend to still be working on her finished report she spun her chair around to face him.

"Ah! The creature lives!" Harry joked. He grinned at her and she found herself smiling back. Why did she always do that? She wasn't in the mood for his silly jokes but still she found herself being infected by his contagious smile.

"Have you actually been working or just staring at me the whole time?" she teased.

"Yes I have Dr. Alexander I'll have you know," he replied, "I've been extremely successful at Solitaire and in between winning I've managed to collect every missing person's file in a ten mile radius." He smirked at her, clearly impressed with his answer.

Nikki rolled her eyes. She happened to know that Leo had already uploaded the files onto the database yesterday and Harry had obviously just found them there, but she didn't want to bring his mood down as at least one of them was happy today.

Harry seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he watched her give him a small smile and turn back to her report. "You alright?" he asked; her pen stop inches away from the paper.

"I'm fine Harry, why do you keep asking me that?" she again spun her chair around to face him, annoyance written across her face. Harry could see that she was trying to make a joke about it and any other person not as close to her would've fell for her pretence, but not Harry. He had noticed the sadness in her eyes and the exhaustion in her features.

"I –"he began before being interrupted by the door opening and to see Leo and a detective walking in.

"Hi guys, sorry we were a bit longer than expected – the traffic was bad," Leo grumbled as he dumped his coat in his office. He shot a look at the detective who was walking around the lab with a scornful expression on his face. Leo caught Harry's eye and raised his eyebrows, unaware of what he had interrupted, "This is DC Gunn."

The man turned around from observing shelves and gave a cold smile, "I've taken over from DC Flack due to the seventh murder," he stated bluntly, eyeing Harry and Nikki up and down, "I expect the best possible work from all of you and I want a result within the week."

Harry coughed into his drink when he heard this. Who did this guy think he was coming into their lab and demanding that they work even harder than they were already? He glanced at Nikki to see what her reaction was – she didn't normally stand for arrogant coppers telling her what to do, but he was disappointed. She sat in the same position at his desk, with a vacant expression on her face. A frown creased Harry's face as he again exchanged a glance with Leo, who shook his head slightly – silently telling Harry not to draw attention Dc Gunn's attention to her.

"Right then, I'd better start the PM then," Leo said. He turned to the police officer, "I take it you would like to observe?"

"Of course," came the cool reply.

Harry bit back a retort, for Leo's sake. Already he didn't like their detective and it made the case a whole lot harder when he didn't. "Send a copy of her face or any distinguishable features up here Leo and I'll start to find out who she is," he called as the pair walked out the door. Leo nodded in acknowledgement and looked over at Nikki one last time before disappearing to the mortuary for the body.

"Can you believe that git?" Harry said angrily to Nikki. She looked up at his heated tone. "How dare he come in here and tell us how to do our jobs?"

"I don't think that was what he was implying Harry," Nikki said, sighing slightly.

"What? How can you say that? '_I want a result within the week'_" Harry echoed sarcastically. He met Nikki's eyes and was shocked at how fierce they were.

"You don't get it do you? He wasn't being a pompous git like you seem intent on making him - even though you've only just met the guy. He just seems to want to get the twisted individual who's done all this. Which, in case you'd forgotten, is what we _all _want isn't it?" she said angrily, now on her feet glaring at him.

"What?" Harry said, shocked at her outburst. She had seemed fine minutes ago. In fact, he hadn't even realised that she'd been aware of DC Gunn's presence, let alone listening what he was saying and now she was suddenly defending the man and turning on him!

"He's right Harry, we do need a result – and soon, because if we don't then even more innocent girls are going to be brutally murdered as nobody can stop it!" her eyes flooded with tears and she turned away from Harry. Right now, she just wanted to be on her own; away from everyone.

"Nikki?" she heard Harry ask from behind her. The way in which he said her name asked a thousand questions all at once, but she didn't turn around. Drawing in a shaky breath, she grabbed her bag and hurried to the door, desperate to be on her own.

"Nikki?" Harry called again, this time more urgently. She turned around and shook her head slowly, before leaving the lab.


	3. Chapter 3

Harry sighed heavily. This was not the first time that she had acted weird about a case, and he doubted that it would be the last. He just wished he knew how to help her to detached herself. Sighing again he tried to push the thought of Nikki out of his mind and return his full attention to the case.

"So what's the cause of death?" came DC Gunn's voice over the transmitter, minutes after Leo had started the PM. Leo caught Zak's eye and they exchanged a look between them; both clearly annoyed at the detective already.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to determine that at this early stage," Leo said bluntly, not taking his eyes away from the body.

"Why not? The girl's clearly been strangled."

"Look, if you feel that you could do a better job then by all mean come and take over," Leo offered, his voice even but the anger was clear in his voice. The other man just kept quiet and glared at the body.

"Thought not," Zak murmured to Leo and they both suppressed a grin.

"Can you take a photograph of her face and the birthmark on the back of her neck and send them up to Harry please?"

"Sure"

Leo stepped back and waited for the pictures to be taken. He ran his eyes over the woman's body: her brown hair matted and tangled, large cuts randomly arranged on her skin and the unmissable, violent bruises surrounding her neck and throat. All the girl's injures matched the other six before her.

He turned to DC Gunn, "Can you go and give Harry a hand finding out who she is? I won't be able to open her up until the family have been informed."

"I'll find out who she is – you find out cause of death for me," he replied, sweeping his eyes across the lab before exiting the viewing room.

"It's people like him who make me worried for our country's security," Zak told Leo as they watched the retreating back of DC Gunn.

Leo chuckled, "Come on, let's find something that will wipe that smirk off his face."

Harry was having trouble concentrating. His mind seemed to be thinking about anything but job he was meant to be doing in front of him. The picture of the young lady, in the process of having a PM, had been sent up ten minutes ago although Harry hadn't actually started searching the database yet. He closed his eyes and put his head in his heads, thinking that he should check on Nikki – or at least give her a phone call to check that she was alright. He hoped that she'd be back soon before Leo noticed that she was gone. If she wasn't then he'd cover for her – he'd always cover for her – but it didn't stop Leo from always seeing through his lies.

"You look like you're extremely busy."

Harry startled and opened his eyes, expecting it to be Nikki. It was exactly the kind of thing that she would say and make a joke out of. But it wasn't Nikki. The voice was a lot deeper and harsher than her's and there was certainly no humour hidden the words. Instead, the face of DC Gunn was staring at him with a disgusted look. "No wonder this case hasn't got anywhere if the people supposed to working on it are falling asleep in the middle of the day."

"I wasn't asleep," Harry retorted sitting up and glaring at the man.

"Clearly," came the reply sarcasticly.

"What are you doing here? Has Leo finished the PM?" Harry asked. He hoped by getting straight to the point then the conversation would finish quicker and he would be left in peace to decide if he should ring Nikki or not. As if reading his mind, DC Gunn smirked, "And where is your lovely colleague then? Is she asleep too, or just gone a coffee break?"

"She's out," Harry snapped. He stood up and glowered at the man. Harry was clearly taller and tried to use his height to intimidate him, yet the strong build of DC Gunn made them evenly matched so both men resorted to puffing out their chests.

"I'll ask you again, why aren't you watching the PM?"

"Dr Dalton-"

"_Professor_ Dalton."

DC Gunn looked at him with distaste, "Yes, him. He asked me to come and check on you and your colleague. It's a good job that I did - one of you has got missing and the other's having a nap!"

"I told you. Nikki's out and I wasn't asleep!" Harry said loudly.

"What's going on here?" Leo said, walking into the room and confronted by the sight of the two grown men glaring angrily at each other. They both held their position for a second longer before turning to Leo.

"Nothing"

"Good, because we'll never get anywhere if the two of you can't get on!"

At that moment Zak walked past and, having just heard Leo's words, raised his eyebrows at Leo with a smile playing on his lips. Leo frowned then realised what he'd said and gave Zak a quick grin showing that he'd understood his own hypocrisy.

"I'm going out," Harry told Leo, his coat already on and his car keys in his hand.

"Where? And Harry – where's Nikki?" Leo looked around trying to spot her blonde curls.

"Out," he stated bluntly and walked out of the door.

"Harry!" Leo shouted after him, but it was no use – he was already walking away from them. With a sigh, Leo turned back DC Gunn who was staring with disbelief at the door which Harry had just walked through.

"I thought you said your team were good?" he asked incredulously.


End file.
